Much of the federal budget is on automatic pilot and will continue to grow even with a strong PAYGO law in place. The White House recently projected that deficits will add over $9 trillion to the debt during the next decade. The budget process is partially responsible for the failure to address these challenges.

The panel, moderated by Morton Kondracke of Roll Call, will include leading budget experts such as Robert Reischauer, Jim Nussle, Rudolph Penner, Tim Penny, and Robert Greenstein. Among the proposals to be discussed are reinstating a statutory "pay-as-you-go" (PAYGO) rule and a strengthened Medicare advisory panel tasked with recommending Medicare savings - a "MedPAC on steroids."

Also to be released at this event, the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform's new paper, A Closer Look at the President's FY2010 Budget Process Reform Proposals.